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10 Ideas for Designing a Meadow Garden

Dream up a meadow in your own backyard with these top planting and design tips

Lennie Larkin
1 /11 Marion Brenner

What Is a Meadow Garden?

A meadow garden is an environmentally-friendly alternative to a turf lawn. Primarily planted with unthirsty grasses, meadows get added visual interest from wildflowers and natives. And gardeners who favor a light touch will love the low maintenance of a meadow garden: poor soil is actually favorable to meadow plants, so no compost, fertilizer, or topsoil is needed.
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Create Walking Paths

Some gardens are meant for gazing and some for strolling. When designing a meadow garden, take some time to consider the size and placement of any walking paths you care to build. We tend to think there’s nothing better than ambling down a winding center path, meadow on either side.
3 /11 Dagny Willis / Getty Images

Plant the Rainbow

A meadow can stretch beyond greens and browns and demonstrate a broad range of colors throughout the season. Sow some purple lupine to bloom in spring, or yellow yarrow to show its face in summer. With some planning, you can put on a pretty sweet display of color all year long.
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Meadow

Meadows like this one in Big Sur are finally back in the hands of their original inhabitants

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Try Lomandra

We adore all things Lomandra, a genus of Australian native plant that boasts over 50 species. They’re commonly known as mat-rush, as the Aborigines commonly wove mats from their long leaves. Try Lomandra hystrix ‘Tropic Bell’ to add some interest to a meadow garden.
6 /11 Hsvrs / Getty Images

Sit Tight

Growing a meadow takes patience. For those looking for fast and cheap thrills from the plant world, you’re going to need to slow your roll. For some semi-immediate gratification as your perennials mature over the years, throw in some quick-growing varieties (echinacea would be a great start) to bring a pop of color in year one.
7 /11 Creative Commons photo by george.bremer is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Break the Rules

As gardeners, we’re hard-wired to want to improve the soil at every turn. Well, we’ve got to change our ways when it comes to planting backyard meadows, as most of these plants will thrive in poor soil! Skip the compost, put aside the fertilizer, and forget everything you thought you knew.
8 /11 Creative Commons photo by Bernard Spragg. NZ is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Hail the Queen

Filipendula rubra, otherwise known as ‘Queen of the Prairie’, is an eastern U.S. native plant that can easily be grown in a meadow garden in the West. Its huge pink and white plumes lend some soft hues to the garden all throughout the summer.
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Go Wild for Fescue

There’s truly a fescue for everyone. Belonging to the grass or Poaceae family, the deep-rooted Festuca genus is used nearly worldwide for landscapes and turfs. We’re particularly fond of Festuca mairei or atlas fescue, and Festuca ovina or sheep fescue.
10 /11 Robert W. Domm / Getty Images

Bring on the Butterflies

We love the look of Aesclepias tuberosa in the meadow garden. But this plant’s virtues extend far beyond its eye-catching orange flowers. It’s highly drought-tolerant and will come back year after year in the right conditions. Plus, it’s an absolute pollinator and butterfly magnet.
11 /11 Creative Commons photo by Sarah@Shotley is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Keep It Native

Planting a meadow garden with mostly native plants is a fun and manageable challenge. Some great options for plant species include varieties of sedge, fescue, bentgrass, needlegrass, and oatgrass. Depending on your soil type, it’s worth giving a mix of these plants a try to see what thrives.

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